Month: November 2007

Is it to be the miracle that lifts Ford out of the red? Plenty are clamoring to purchase Ford’s 2007 Mustang Shelby 500 – the ‘500’ designates the horsepower of this latest sports leviathan from the US motor company – but is it all it’s cracked up to be?

No, not according to the British TV car magazine, “Top Gear”, who tested the vehicle back in August and found, firstly, it was lacking horsepower – the car only delivered 447 – and, secondly, the handling was downright atrocious.

To quote one reviewer:

“Ford say this car has a live rear axle, which basically means it is a whacking great girder with a wheel at each end.”

While the Shelby 500 may be fast in a straight line, put it in any situation where it has to go around corners and it has the handling performance of a drunken elephant on roller skates.

But, “Hang on!” I hear you cry, “Sparrow Chat has never been a motoring blog. What’s it all about?”

Quite simply, the Mustang Shelby 500 is the epitome of everything that is wrong with the US automobile industry today.

For years we’ve been hearing of GM’s decline from No 1; Chevrolet’s gradual demise into the abyss of rusting hulks, and Ford laying off so many workers they may soon be down to one man working in his own garage – part time.

Toyota and Honda are sweeping the board in America while US car company executives scratch their heads and look more and more bemused. But they still insist on turning out huge six and eight liter monstrosities that would be laughed off the road in Europe.

European and Asian manufacturers like Renault, Citroen, and Volkswagen have been churning out small, turbo-diesel engines in their family saloons for fifteen or more years now. Engines that would blow the socks off a Ford Taurus or Chevy Malibu, even though they’re diesel-fueled and only half the capacity. My wife’s Honda Civic has a 1.6 liter engine that beats my 2.5 liter Pontiac away from every light.

Why? Better build quality; better engineering, and more priority on R & D than on lining US investors pockets.

For years, Americans have been tricked into believing US vehicles were superior to the European, or even Japanese models. Meanwhile, crazy DOT and EPA regulations made it uneconomical for foreign motor companies to compete dollar for dollar with home-produced brands in the US marketplace.

All that is likely to change given the high cost of fuel; even the new bio-gas and bio-diesel isn’t going to be cheap. How long then before the American consumer realizes a two-liter family saloon car is capable of returning a better performance than the 3.5 – 4 liters they’ve been used to, and with gas returns in excess of forty miles per gallon, and diesel consumptions of over fifty?

All this is nothing new. Let me make a personal comparison from twenty years ago. In 1987, Toyota was manufacturing a small, two-seater, sports car with a 1.6 liter, aluminum, twin-overhead cam, gas-fueled engine positioned behind the interior seats. They called it the MR2. It was capable of 115+ mph, cruised at around 5,500 rpm at seventy mph, and took your breath away. I know, because I owned one.

Development of the MR2 began in the 70’s, but was delayed and eventually given the green light in 1980. The first production model rolled off the lines in 1984.

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, Pontiac was also developing a mid-engined, two-seater, sports car – the Fiero. Their first production vehicle also appeared in 1984. The one advantage of the Fiero over the MR2 was its plastic body. While Pontiac copied much of their design from the MR2, the mechanics were a total disaster. Toyota built a new 1.6 liter power unit specifically for the MR2; Pontiac used the old “Iron Duke”, a four cylinder, 2.5 liter, cast-iron mammoth from the 1970’s that barely returns thirty miles per gallon and was used in the Grumman USPS delivery vehicle from 1986. At it’s best it only managed around 85hp, compared to the 122hp of the much smaller MR2 power unit.

Toyota’s vehicle could accelerate from 0 – 60 mph in eight seconds. The Fiero? Well, I suppose it got there eventually.

I now own a 1987 Pontiac Fiero, so I’m well able to compare these two vehicles. As is often the case, the foreign car was just so much better than its American counterpart.

In fairness to Pontiac, they did produce a V6, 2.8 liter GT version of the Fiero, which is the vehicle most often seen in photographs today, but fuel economy was way down on the 32 mpg stated, as was the bragged 40 mpg for the “Iron Duke”. My Fiero, (38,000 miles) returns no more than 34mpg on the interstate, driven lightly.

The US motor industry’s obsession with huge, gas-guzzling, monsters will be its undoing. The premise: if you want to go faster build it bigger, is no longer the case. It can only be a matter of time before European manufacturers gain a US foothold. Volkswagen sales in this country are already rising steadily. Unless Ford, Chevrolet, and GM stop lining their own, and investor’s, pockets for a while and invest heavily in research and development to catch up with their European and Asian rivals, it will take more than the fancy looks of the ungainly Ford Mustang Shelby 500 to prevent them from sinking further and further into the motor manufacturing sunset.

Filed under: Rusting away

Matt Frei, the BBC’s new man in America, has noticed the lack of Iraq news once permeating the US media. In his latest report, he notes the reduction in murder and mayhem in that country, or at least, the drop in news coverage of such events.

Frei puts it all down to the “surge”, that influx of US military might into Baghdad of an additional 30,000 or so troops. He’s probably right. Swamp any city with sufficient armor and you’ll get a reduction in enemy action. That’s exactly what the “surge”was all about.

The main BBC news headline tonight (Frei is the anchor) showed scenes of Iraqis returning from exile to the new ‘peace and tranquility’ of the Baghdad suburbs. In fairness, the report highlighted most Iraqis as returning from Syria, a country that is refusing to renew visas for Iraqi refugees, forcing them to return to their home country.

By contrast, NBC led with the rise in political fortunes of Mike Huckabee, ex-governor of Arkansas and Republican hopeful for presidential nomination. Huckabee, it seems, is preferred by Iowa evangelicals to that multi-divorcee and gun control freak (God have mercy on his soul!) Rudi Guiliani, or the cult follower from Utah (Damn him to Hell!) Mitt Romney.

Iraq, it seems, no longer exists for the US media or the White House.

America is holding its breath; afraid to pronounce judgment, even whisper the possibility of any improvement in that arena of unmitigated disasters long ago proven the stumbling block of a great nation, and the further undoing of a US president always unfit for public service.

Baghdad is certainly quieter. Iraqis generally had no love for al Qaeda, and some Sunni insurgents have been prepared to temporarily join forces with the US military to drive them out. Equally certain is the knowledge that both Sunnis and Shias are keen to see the Americans leave Iraq. It begs the question of how they will react when the Americans don’t go.

For, of course, the US is going nowhere. There may well be a troop reduction next year, it is an election year after all, but a substantial military and political presence will remain in Iraq permanently. Of that, as Gilbert & Sullivan’s Don Alhambra sang in the Gondoliers, “…..there is no manner of doubt, no probable, possible shadow of doubt, no possible doubt whatever.”

The race for the US Presidency is proving a timely diversion from the awkward, unanswered questions about Iraq. While Baghdad is quiet, turmoil still continues to reign elsewhere. Sunni and Shia, when not separated by American-built concrete walls, continue to kill each other with mundane regularity. Al Qaeda is still active outside Baghdad, and for a realistic insight into the problems occurring on a daily basis there is no finer website than “Iraq Today”.

The BBC’s Matt Frei may see hope in the returning refugees from Syria; George W Bush and his media supporters may wish the squabbling politicians preparing for Iowa continue to distract their compliant populace, but the stark truth is that Iraqis are still dying in large numbers, whether from bombs, revenge killings, or just inadequate essential services.

The day must surely come when Iraqis, both Sunni and Shia, will realize their country is to be permanently occupied by US Christian forces. On that day, it is likely the worm will turn with a vengeance, just as it did against the British in 1920.

For those who still doubt, read Robert Fisk’s June 2004 article in the Independent, entitled simply, “Iraq, 1917”.

As George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Read Matt Frei’s article on Iraq HERE.

Filed under: Forlorn hopes

“First [the Dodo] marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, (`the exact shape doesn’t matter,’ it said,) and then all the party were placed along the course, here and there. There was no `One, two, three, and away,’ but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out `The race is over!’ and they all crowded round it, panting, and asking, `But who has won?’ ~ Description of a Caucus Race from Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll.

Brian Williams, anchor for the NBC Nightly News, announced yesterday the official race for the White House would begin in forty-three days with the Iowa Caucus.

It leaves one wondering where he has been for the last few years.

If memory serves correctly, the Caucus Race devised in Carroll’s book, “Alice in Wonderland” was a tortuous affair without official end, until everyone finally decided they’d had enough, and a winner was eventually chosen apparently at random.

While there are, no doubt, those who at least make pretense of understanding the American way of choosing their nation’s next leader, to those outside this inner political sanctum of doubtful knowledge the whole thing makes “Alice’s” Caucus Race appear remarkably logical by comparison. In fact, the tortuously meandering path of the US presidential election closely resembles this Wonderland jaunt.

The race was suggested as a way to dry-off a number of very wet creatures. Is their anything wetter than a US politician slavering over the White House and pawing at unwary voters?

The process certainly seems to drag on without end, and the final outcome appears to bear little relation to all that preceded it.

Primaries, secondaries, CBS polls, MSNBC polls, straw polls, debates for Republicans, debates for Democrats (for God’s sake don’t let them get together, there’ll be a bloodbath!), the spending of billions and billions of dollars, huge luxury buses hurtling round the country, thousands of hangers-on supporting their man (or woman), endless TV debates by pseudo-experts with as much idea of the political outcome as had Alice’s Dodo………..

And all for what? So once again a glitzy, pearl-teethed, dumbass can make a total mess of the world for another four years, or longer.

Check out the history and it’s obvious there has never, ever been a good president of the USA. Every one has cocked up the job one way or another. Sure, some have managed to do a bit better than others, but overall their credibility ratings have been decidedly lackluster, and frequently downright appalling. Even the one perhaps remembered with greatest fondness, Abraham Lincoln, could hardly be described as lily-white, given that in 1862 he ordered the largest mass execution – of 38 innocent Santee Dakota Sioux – in American history.

Lincoln also suspended Habeus Corpus and arrested thousands of US citizens, including journalists. There is also evidence he was a racist and hated blacks, despite being feted for abolishing slavery. Probably, he would be less well remembered had someone not assassinated him in 1865. America remembers its assassinated presidents with obliging affection. The far-from-perfect JFK is another fine example.

The US political system is probably one of the most flawed on the planet. It falls only slightly short of downright military dictatorship. Instead, it balances precariously between that and a rough pretense at democracy, with the latter conveniently cast aside whenever US policy requires a more direct approach, as amply demonstrated by the present incumbent.

Indeed, just as the birds and small creatures of the Caucus Race crept quietly away at the mention of Alice’s favorite cat, it would seem Lady Democracy is also slipping silently into the American political basement, as Congress cedes more and more of its power to one very dubious human being in the highest office on the planet.

How long, one wonders, before a newly-elected appears at the presidential inauguration dressed in the attire of the Queen of Hearts, while occasionally screaming, “Off with his HEAD!”

Filed under: Curiouser and curiouser